Limelight Cinemas Australia

Limelight Cinemas, Australia, February 2016

Despite being a relatively new chain amongst the global cinema giants prominent in Australia, Limelight Cinemas is making big steps. Currently operating sites in two locations, Ipswich (Queensland) and Tuggeranong (Canberra), Limelight is proving that being a small exhibitor doesn’t mean you can’t compete with the big boys.

We operate in very competitive environments dominated by large and sophisticated operators. Having the tools to keep pace with those competitors and with customer expectations around technology is fundamental to our survival and growth. Let’s face it, if David didn’t have his slingshot, he’d just be another one of Goliath’s victims.

Ross Entwistle, CEO, Limelight Cinemas

By implementing Vista at their sites, Limelight invested in enterprise products such as Vista Cinema, Head Office, Loyalty, Vista Web, and Vista Mobile. By having the faith to invest in scalable, powerful modules that give them the same advantages enjoyed by large cinema chains, Limelight have given themselves the opportunity to capitalize on their investment.

If you use it right, even a two-site cinema like us can get great advantage out of Vista.

Michael Singh, General Manager - Operations, Limelight Cinemas

Having previously utilized the world’s leading supplier of cinema management software, Limelight CEO Ross Entwistle understood the importance of a robust and reliable cinema system. By implementing key business infrastructure – such as a POS system that is fast and stable — operational processes can be streamlined and cinema staff can work more efficiently. With their head office located in Canberra, Limelight takes advantage of Vista’s Head Office to automate the transfer of operational data to their cinema sites, configuring and controlling their cinema operations from a centralized location. In today’s environment, if your software doesn’t meet these basic requirements, it means you’re putting your business at a disadvantage.

Undisputedly, our staff have said they prefer the Vista Point of Sale. They say it’s cleaner, easier to use, and more modern with KPI tracking to help them compare their progress to the rest of the staff. From a ground floor, customer-interaction level, Vista is a huge improvement from their end.

Michael Singh, General Manager - Operations, Limelight Cinemas

For a cinema chain whose philosophy is all about making sure that the experience of going to the movies is fun, investing in a full range of Vista software made it possible for Limelight to offer a world class cinema experience. Providing moviegoers with a branded website and mobile app for purchasing tickets from the comfort of their home or while they’re on the move means that Limelight is not just another face in the crowd.

For indies like us the customer experience is an essential point of difference. It’s not just about building a different cinema with different seats or different ticket prices. It’s about understanding the customer better, and combining that insight with technology and personality to deliver a better experience at every touchpoint.

Ross Entwistle, CEO, Limelight Cinemas

For Limelight, customer insights and tailored experiences not only increase patronage but also enable them to compete with heavy hitters within the industry – progressive and entrepreneurial cinema chains such as Hoyts and Event. In a sector that relies heavily on geographical location, it is critical to ensure your business offers something pretty special to compete against people’s ‘local’ cinema. One of the industry’s main marketing strategies is to develop repeat customers through smart, personalized rewards schemes. Nowadays, if you don’t have the pillar products to offer these loyalty programs and gather the data you require, you can’t compete.

Limelight were quick to see that by concurrently implementing Vista’s Loyalty with Movio — the global leader in marketing data analytics and campaign management software — they would be able to add additional value to their loyalty database and improve customer engagement and retention. With Vista’s sales channels capturing moviegoer behavior for Vista’s Loyalty, Movio’s integration with Loyalty closed the loop on campaigns, providing the ultimate tool for streamlining the creation of promotional material and accurately determining the ROI.

If we did nothing, we would move backwards. We had to make an investment so we could understand our customers a lot better. The fact that Movio sits on top of Vista’s Loyalty means we can actually talk to our consumers and we get to know what they like, what they watch, what they buy from the candy bar. The fact we actually can engage with them in a more personal sense is what we wanted to achieve. Our move to Vista was an investment in us getting to understand our customers better.

Michael Singh, General Manager - Operations, Limelight Cinemas

With ambitions to grow the brand, Limelight understood that Vista’s mammoth array of innovative functionality would be of benefit. The development that Vista currently supports and is looking towards was seen as the way to future-proof their development and growth processes.

One of the big advantages of being with Vista is their investment in and development of mobile technology. As consumers continue to migrate to mobile for everything from entertainment to social media to transactional activity, it’s vital that we’re keeping pace. That’s often tough for smaller businesses like ours without the internal resources of larger companies, so knowing that our technology partner is investing heavily in this area gives us confidence that we’re able to adapt and stay relevant

Ross Entwistle, CEO, Limelight Cinemas

Limelight is a forward-thinking and innovative chain who have taken advantage of the opportunities they’ve identified as available to them. Having worked closely with the Vista Services Team during their implementation process, Limelight are confident that their growth and development will be supported.

One of the concerning parts about moving to a new system was the support aspect. But I must give credit where credit is due. The guys who came and did the installation for us were absolutely fantastic and I can’t speak more highly of them. And even post that — the Vista Support Site and the guys who are willing to help out us at a drop of a hat. Support was one of my major concerns, but we have comfort in knowing there’s always help available. It’s thumbs up!

Michael Singh, General Manager - Operations, Limelight Cinemas

Michael, Ross and the staff at Limelight were fantastic to deal with throughout the project and have worked incredibly hard alongside us to make the conversion to Vista a success. They’ve been a great customer to have on board and I’m looking forward to seeing their business grow over the coming years.

About Limelight Cinemas

Limelight is a proudly independent cinema company founded in 2009, with a mission to create cinemas that people love and want to keep coming back to. We’re driven by a simple determination to give our customers a better deal with everyday low pricing, and to really celebrate cinema in ways that make the experience more interesting than big chain multiplexes. Whether it’s singing along at one of our famous interactive screenings, rediscovering big screen classics in our regular retrospectives, dressing up in costume for a midnight screening, or just being transported to another world for a couple of hours on a Saturday night, we’re determined to keep celebrating all kinds of cinema, for all kinds of audiences, in all kinds of ways.

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